The massacre of the Armenians and their deportation by the Turkish nationalities resulted from the conflict of ideologies, nationalism and religion. The unjustifiable act was meant to drive away from the Armenians who lived in Anatolia as to create space for the homeland of Turkey’s nationalities. The ideologies relate to the act resulted from the conflict in leadership that erupted between the government of Ottoman and the Armenian people. Armenians were religious and ethnic minorities who lived in a place where they were surrounded by Muslims who were larger in numbers and were the majority in the political section.
However hard the Armenians could work in business, trade or the public sector, they were never treated on equal measures as their Muslim counterparts who were the majority in almost all sectors (Drew Magratten et al., 2010). This aspect made them be treated as inferior in society. Even though there were no incidents of non-Muslim persecution during the period of Ottoman governance, there still was discrimination that was acceptable by religion and the law. Muslims were against any social welfare of the Christians and Jews in that they grew the resentment against Christians whenever they seemed to have become well-off and wealthy. Muslims believed that Armenians were not supposed to be equal or better than them.
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Christians became more discriminated and hardly benefited from any reforms that were aimed at eliminating excessive discrimination against non-Muslims and create equality in the law. Armenians got oppressed ad got their land and livestock taken away from them by Kurdish Bands that were armed. Muslims protested against Christians even though Muslims were the majority and no action could be taken by the State authorities but instead the Armenians got blamed for their rebellious nature. The Ottoman state officials were unreliable and unavailable for the Armenians to file their complaints.
The main motivation of the Ottoman government came from the fact that Armenians did not belong to the majority and favored Muslim group. In the 1890s, a small number of Armenians came up with a revolutionary strategy in which small revolutionary parties rose and this was viewed as a threat to the Sultan’s leadership. The Armenian’s revolutionary activities erupted violence that led to the death of hundreds of thousands of the Armenians.
Armenian genocide began in 1915 when the Turkish government killed and put Armenians in custody. The majority of the Armenians got driven out from their homes and they were put on death matches where they walked through Mesopotamian desert with no water and food. The marching Armenians got their clothes stripped off and they were made to move under the hot sun until when they got exhausted and died from hunger and thirst. The few who could stop for a rest got shot. The Young Turks came up with an organization that concerned itself with killing Armenians by the act of drowning them in water, throwing them off the cliff, crucifying them and even burning their live bodies. The Armenian corpses were spread all over the countryside in Turkey. The Ottoman Government got charged by Russia, France and Britain for the Armenian massacre and held the Turkish government and the participating members liable for the innocent killings (Matas, 1989).
Terrible crimes against humanity happen during the war because the nature of war is associated with bad things that happen during its period. This aspect leads to a rise in all crimes during the war as it is considered to be part of the war. The possibility of such crimes to be punished depends on the eventuality of the war based on who emerged as the winner. Offenders of such crimes could escape getting punished by the state government in case the country won the war. This works as a motivational factor for criminals to carry out other forms of crimes during the war period. Foreign governments deal with crimes against humanity by prosecuting and bringing to justice the individuals that get to be responsible for such crimes.
References
Drew, M., Gavshon, M, H., & Columbia Broadcasting System (Producers). (2010). Battle over history. [Video/DVD] Columbia Broadcasting System. Retrieved from https://video-alexanderstreet-com.chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/watch/battle-over-history
Matas, D. (1989). Prosecuting Crimes Against Humanity: The Lessons of World War I. Fordam Int'l LJ , 13 , 86.
